Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: This was a wide ranging discussion on many space topics & related issues. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. We talked about many topics and issues on this 2 hour 40 minute program. In the first segment, ITAR reform was discussed and Andrew of the Tea Party In Space in his discussion also advocated for the resumption of manufacturing Plutonium 238. We got caught off but he called back in the second segment. Charles called to advocate for small markets & an incremental approach. He continues working on Microlaunchers. John from Atlanta called to talk about strange lights over Detroit. We had a good time talking about the mysterious Detroit sightings which you can easily see pictures of & find out more if interested with a very simple Google search. John also wanted to talk about our recent advanced propulsion program about warp drive and interstellar physics. If you have not heard that program from Jan. 4, 2013, I strongly recommend you do listen to it. Space budget, economic and sequestration issues came up in this segment as well. We also talked about the bankruptcy sale of special battery company A123 to China and the fact that this includes sensitive military technology. Listeners expressed a variety of opinions about this matter. Perri provided us with this Forbes story on the matter: www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/12/china-wins-u-s-loses-in-a123-bankruptcy. I also read a PR statement from a group opposing the sale to China.

In our longer second segment, Andrew called back and we talked about economic issues in congress, SLS, Golden Spike, and building relationships with staffers in congress to better advocate for space. Tim called from Huntsville to tell us about the absurd PETA, Elon Musk and vegetarian issue arising about the food people will eat on Mars. You can read about it at these locations: http://rt.com/usa/news/space-mars-musk-people-595 and http://betabeat.com/2013/01/elon-musk-would-like-you-to-know-i-am-not-the-kale-eating-overlord-of-mars. Based on this story, we got several listener comments on PETA, Martian food, and space nutrition. In fact Doug called to say that he thought early Mars missions would likely be vegetarian just for mass and technical reasons. Our last caller was Perri who wanted to talk about the need to refurbish and bring back to life the excellent Colorado teaching planetarium, the Robert H. Johnson Planetarium in Jefferson County. Perri provided us with lots of good information on this planetarium and its refurbishment needs. She also talked about food consolidation problems in the U.S. and globally, plus a host of other matters, including the plutonium issue which was mentioned in the first segment. Here, she told us about the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum based on The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant. The museum is also in Jefferson County, CO. For more information, visit www.rockyflatscoldwarmuseum.org. If you want to connect with Perri about the planetarium or any of the other issues she mentioned, you can email her through me.

You can also email all our callers through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog.